Zero waste week

Find out how to get your waste closer to that magic number without increasing costs

WHY SHOULD TEAMS FOCUS ON REDUCING WASTE?

Save time

Reducing waste cuts down the time you spend managing rubbish. Less waste means fewer trips to the bins, lighter loads that are easier to carry and less risk of bins overflowing (which can lead to rats and nasty odours). This all helps maintain a hygienic working environment, which is especially important working with food and customers.

Save money

Reducing food and drink waste saves money in the long run. Often, it’s simply about reviewing current processes and seeing where waste occurs, then working out how to eliminate or reduce it. This could be by changing your menu, ordering or other processes. By producing less waste your organisation should need fewer bin collections and will pay less landfill tax, as you’ll send less (ideally zero) waste to landfill.

Save the planet

Making significant steps to reduce waste is an easy way to improve sustainability and attract potential customers. This is important for the food and drink industry as consumers are becoming more eco-conscious and looking to dine at places that align with their ethics. Research shows 70% of Brits want restaurants to be more sustainable and almost a third would pay more to eat at a sustainable restaurant*.

*Source: Belu and WaterAid

“Businesses should follow the waste hierarchy and prioritise preventing and reducing waste before thinking about reusing, recycling, and recovery. These all require energy and resources, which add to carbon footprints.”

- Alex Neag, Business Waste Head of PR

HOW TO MONITOR FOOD WASTE

Tracking

The cheap and easy way is to set up a spreadsheet and record daily weights of food waste, cardboard, glass and other rubbish streams. This helps identify days when waste increases or decreases, spikes for certain waste types, and shows any areas to focus on.

Ticketing

An electronic ticketing system for orders provides good visibility and highlights fulfilment. It should help avoid double orders and reduce food waste while also assisting in helping you to track plate waste.

Technology

There’s plenty of software available that provides automated food waste monitoring. They offer insights, which should make tracking food and drink waste seamless for bars and kitchens. They’ve all got different features and costs, so it’s worth looking around and comparing to see which suit your company best.

Drinks

Serving more drinks on draught (both alcoholic and soft) saves significantly on glass, plastic and metal can waste. Drinks glasses are washed and reused numerous times, unlike cans, plastic or glass bottles which are used once then sent for recycling.

Menus

Adapting the menu can encourage you to get creative with waste. Cafes, restaurant and pubs with surplus of a specific ingredient close to its use-by date can introduce a limited time special that makes the most of it. For vegetables this is often seen with the changing soup of the day.

Bins

Having separate food waste bins for kitchen and plate waste helps highlight where most waste food is produced. Use this information to change kitchen processes if that’s where lots of produce is wasted or reassess your menu and portion sizes if too much food is wasted by diners.